Holyrood passes Child Poverty Bill

Statutory targets to tackle child poverty will become law in Scotland after the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill was unanimously passed yesterday by the Scottish Parliament.

The bill will:

• set in statute targets to reduce child poverty by 2030;
• place a duty on ministers to publish child poverty delivery plans at regular intervals and to report on progress annually;
• place a duty on local authorities and health boards to report annually on what they are doing to contribute to reducing child poverty; and
• establish a Poverty & Inequality Commission.

Targets include that fewer than 10% of children live in "relative poverty", which means living in "a household whose equivalised net household income for a given financial year is less than 60% of median equivalised household income for the year" – meaning median net household income for the UK, adjusted to take into account variations in household size and composition.

The other measures are:

• fewer than 5% falling within "absolute poverty" – living in a household with income (measured in the same way) less than 60% of the median for the year beginning 1 April 2010, or other date that may be set;
• fewer than 5% experiencing combined low income (less than 70% of the median) and material deprivation (not defined in the bill);
• fewer than 5% experiencing "persistent poverty" – falling below the 60% threshold in three out of four calendar years.

Interim targets are set for the year beginning 1 April 2023.

Under a strengthened s 7, ministers must prepare a delivery plan for successive periods beginning on 1 April 2018, covering matters including financial support and information and assistance in relation thereto, education and closing the attainment gap, health, housing, childcare and employment related skills of parents. They must also report on progress within three months of the end of each financial year covered by the delivery plans.

Equalities Secretary Angela Constance commented: “With one in four children living in poverty, we need to take urgent action – both to help those children who are living in poverty now, and to prevent future generations of children growing up in poverty.

“We have already announced a Tackling Child Poverty Fund worth £50m. This bill will go even further and see statutory targets to reduce and ultimately eradicate child poverty. This is in stark contrast to the action being taken by the UK Government, which has abolished its child poverty unit and child poverty targets."

She added: “Meeting our ambitious new targets will be challenging and it will seem like we are often fighting with one hand behind our back in the face of the cuts, which are set to increase child poverty across the UK by around one million children. But the Scottish Government intends to take positive action to address child poverty and tackle the deep seated generational inequalities in our society."

For the opposition, Adam Tomkins (Conservative) said: "On its own, the bill will do nothing to lift even a single child in Scotland out of poverty – we should be under no illusions about that. All the attention now turns to the delivery plans and the holistic approach that they will require ministers to take... [The targets] are ambitious, it is right that they are ambitious and the Scottish Parliament will today send our country the strong message that we are united in saying that the targets should be met."